If I get a Freesat + HDD recorder such as the Humax Foxsat HDR does it have the interactive channels (red button) on BBC?

My old FTA didn't have this, but I scanned all the channels available, found the interactive streams and programmed them in.

Do you have the ability with the Humax to scan and set your own channel list, or are you stuck with the Freeview EPG?

Yes, you can indeed access the BBC red button service, regarding 'customising' your channel list - I simply deleted all the unwanted channels. You can add them to a 'favourite' list but I didn't find this particularly good - as the box kept reverting to the complete channel listings.

Other than deleting channels you can't order the freesat epg in any other way than in local channel number order (and before you ask you can't change these either ). Using the box in fta mode (Humax call it non-freesat) you can do what you like with channel numbers, channel names, display order etc.

Its a mystery as well why some channels are badly abbreviated in the EPG, but if you switch to List mode in the EPG, the channel names appear in full. How bizarre. Why can't they just be the full name in the EPG as well?